As the dust settles after Malcolm Turnbull wrested the prime ministership from Tony Abbott on Monday, many Australians are wondering if his victory could signal a change in direction for digital innovation in Australia.

Turnbull has marketed himself quite literally as a "friend of the Internet," he's praised the sharing economy, and he likes his gadgets, to be sure. He was even part of a technology company himself once, as the founding director of one of Australia's first Internet companies, OzEmail.

Before digitally minded Aussies get too excited, however, let's not forget Turnbull was in the room when some of the most unpopular initiatives of the Liberal government were conceived.

As minister for communications since 2013, Turnbull has been there for everything from the government's lacklustre startup policies to the downgrading of the National Broadband Network, as well as the implementation of Australia's mandatory data retention scheme.

More friendly to startups?

The Coalition's 2015 budget was certainly hit-and-miss for entrepreneurs, and Turnbull was part of a government that couldn't seem to differentiate startups from small business, as BRW reported.

While Turnbull dropped some of the buzzwords tech-types love to hear in his first speech after winning the leadership ballot Monday — "agile," "innovative" and "creative," among others — whether this signals a real change in approach to this growing sector of the economy remains to be seen.

Many technology entrepreneurs, such as the chief executive of Australian digital documents startup Nitro, Sam Chandler, took heart on Tuesday. Malcolm is "speaking like someone who understands that Australia is on the precipice of success or failure," Chandler said in a statement.

"In choosing to proactively engage with the technology ecosystem over the past few years, Malcolm has demonstrated that he cares about innovation and understands its importance to Australia’s future ... I am cautiously hopeful that this change of PM will usher in a change of that course."

Totally get if this isn't a day one or two thing but I hope PM Turnbull pushes for some Australian fair use

Let's also not forget, that while reforms to tax policy for startups are all well and good, without a modern and effective copyright and patent regime here in Australia, the country's ability to innovate online will be hamstrung.

While we've heard plenty from him about piracy, it's been a long time since we've heard Turnbull tackle other important topics such as introducing a fair use exemption into our copyright system, for example.

The fate of the National Broadband Network

The National Broadband Network, an ambitious government-backed project to deliver fast broadband to 8 million Australian premises by 2020, has been a true white elephant for Turnbull.

Proposed under the previous Labor government, the Liberals, with Turnbull as communications minister, downgraded parts of the project, which will now deliver mostly fibre-to-the-node technology around Australia, rather than fibre-to-the-premises, as was previously promised.

The shift has left many worried the system will not deliver the high Internet speeds necessary to support 21st century jobs and innovation in Australia.

On Tuesday, the advocacy group Internet Australia called for the newly elected Turnbull to fast track the NBN. "Over the past two years Australia has fallen behind other OECD countries in the rankings for Internet-enabled offices and homes," Chief Executive Laurie Patton said in a statement.

"Right now the priority must be to roll out the NBN as quickly as possible. We can continue to debate the appropriate technology, but we cannot wait any longer to get Australians connected."

The NBN fell squarely under Turnbull's purview in communications, and it's unclear who he'll pass it off to now that he's won the leadership — not to mention whether he would be open to reviewing and improving his government's approach to the vital bit of infrastructure.

A fresh start on Internet policy?

The Liberal government has hardly passed sensible, effective Internet policy on Turnbull's watch over the past two years.

With Turnbull sent out to sell it to the public, the bill, which allows government agencies access to two years' worth of the metadata of Australians without a warrant, passed despite security and privacy concerns.

In June, the government also passed its site-blocking bill, the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill. The law, which aims to block Australian access to foreign websites that facilitate copyright infringement, has been roundly criticised by technology advocates, including Google.

Although it came under the purview of Attorney-General George Brandis, Turnbull was the one to introduce the bill into parliament in March.

During Turnbull's time as communications minister, Australia found itself saddled with two questionable new Internet laws, and perhaps one day soon, an equally useless anti-copyright infringement three-strikes regime.

Although they could be regarded as emblems of the Abbott era in government, will these controversial laws and policies be walked back now Turnbull's in the driver's seat? Perhaps he can message us on Wickr and let us know.

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